Synopsis for "What If... the Avengers Had Become the Pawns of Korvac?"Edit

During the events of Avengers #177, Carina showed Korvac fear as he looked to her for support. In this universe, Carina instead showed no hesitation, giving Korvac the strength to kill the Avengers. He then resurrects them as his pawns, tasking the more powerful members with fighting the cosmic beings assembling against him and the ESPers with monitoring their movements. He seals the universe off from other-dimensional realms to prevent the gods from coming to avenge Thor and Hercules and to keep the likes of Dormammu, Mephisto, and Immortus from interfering in his plans to bring universal order. He then banishes Dr.Strange, Phoenix, and the Silver Surfer from the universe to keep them out of the mix as well.

The Watcher gathers many of the Elders of the Universe and convinces some of them to fight against Korvac, but a couple of them have other ideas. Grandmaster goes to Korvac to propose a contest of champions for his right to power, but Korvac kills him outright, claiming not to play games. The Shaper of Worlds fares better by simply offering his reality-altering powers to serve Korvac's imagination.

Galactus and the Gardener head out in a ship to attack, but Korvac sends the Avengers on a suicide mission to stall them, crashing them on Mars. He directs Captain America to use the stolen Ultimate Nullifier to sacrifice himself destroying Galactus.

As the situation grows more desperate and Master Order grows larger to represent Korvac's growing share of universal control, the Stranger attempts to distract Korvac by hurling the Moon at the Earth while the In-Betweener abducts Carina, hoping she will prove to be Korvac's weakness. However Korvac destroys the Moon and the Stranger, and Carina is revealed to have been switched with the Shaper, giving Korvac the chance to destroy the In-Betweener as well. The Living Tribunal decides to make the sun go nova in order to destroy Korvac along with the Earth, but Korvac's power shields the Earth from fiery annihilation, so the Tribunal gives up and abandons the universe.

Finally, the Watcher confronts Korvac with a starship armada assembled from across the universe, driving him to consume the remainder of Earth's inhabitants for power. He grows to planetary size and threatens the fleet with the Ultimate Nullifier. The Watcher tries to negotiate with him, offering him a remote galaxy where he wouldn't have to be in conflict with anyone, but Korvac is determined to bring order to everything. He expands his mind further still, until he's one with Eternity. As he does, Death, who had been greatly benefiting from Korvac's warpath, makes her move and jars his hand on the trigger of the Ultimate Nullifier, obliterating the universe.

Notes

Plot input by Sanderson.

Layouts by Gruenwald, finishes by LaRocque, inks by many.

In the long list of inkers, Death is listed as having inked "Himself," which most likely means the character was inked by Jim Starlin, who had the Death character in many of his stories.

This issue serves as the first and final appearance for every Earth-84232 character, aside from Phoenix, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, and Eternity's ghost, who would appear in a sequel to this issue in What If? #43.